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FAMILIAR 



Talks to Boys. 



BY THE 



REV. JOHN HALL, D.D., 



NEW YORK. 



NEW YORK: 

DODD, MEAD & COMPANY, 

751 BROADWAY. 



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^ONGRESS 



WASHINGTON 



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CoFYKIGHT ; 

DODD, MEAD & COMPANY. 



TO 
THE REV. ELIE CHARLIER, 

AND 

THE GREAT CLASS OP INSTRUCTORS REPRESENTED BY HIM, 

THIS LITTLE BOOK 

IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED 

BY ONE 

WHO UNDERSTANDS THE TOILS AND DIFFICULTIES OF 

TEACHERS, AND WHO APPRECIATES THEIR 

PRICELESS SERVICES TO THE 

COMMUNITY. 



EXPLANATORY NOTE. 



When a gentleman announces that he is 
called upon to speak " on the spur of the mo- 
ment," and forthwith produces a manuscript- 
speech, his attempt to disarm criticism deserves 
to be a failure. With becoming deference to 
the critics, the author feels bound to reconcile 
the extempore character of these " talks " with 
the existence of a manuscript for the printer. 
The explanation is brief and simple. The 
author did not produce the manuscript. 

Then, how did it come into being? 

The Rev. Elie Charlier engaged the author 
(for the second year) to speak to his pupils in 
the Charlier Institute, leaving to himself the 
time, the topics, and the style of treatment. 
The addresses — if anything so informal can be 
so called — were made with great pleasure to the 



6 EXPLANATORY NOTE. 

speaker, and with all pleasant indications of in- 
terest on the part of the inspiring and' unso- 
phisticated audience. But Mr. Charlier had 
placed a reporter in ambush, of whose presence 
and labor the speaker only knew when he re- 
ceived from Mr. Charlier a good-natured con- 
fession of the deed, a roll of manuscript, a de- 
claration that it did not belong to him, and 
the expression of a hope that it might go to 
the printer. 

The responsibility of making this one more 
book, therefore, belongs to Mr. Charlier. The 
reporter had not that place of honor and easy 
hearing due to his profession, and the looseness 
of style, which the critics will see in these 
" talks," may be credited about equally to fur- 
tive reporting, and to colloquial address to 
several hundred boys, some of them so young 
as to render repetition desirable. 

Among the many advantages of the author's 
early life he counts it no mean blessing that he 
was, during most of his own career in college 
and seminary, a " tutor" and teacher in a pub- 
lic academy, in English and in classics, and 
in both male and female departments. Some 



EXPLANATORY NOTE. 



comprehension of the needs of the young, and 
some knowledge of the mode in which young 
minds work have been thus acquired, along 
with a practical understanding of the delicacy 
and difficulty of the work of those instructors 
who must reconcile the slowness with which a 
good education is acquired, with the impatience 
and the endlessly diversified ideas and expecta- 
tions of parents. If these frank and familiar 
addresses should receive as cordial attention in 
their printed as in their spoken form, the high- 
est ambition might well be satisfied. But the 
main thing is that they do good, moral and re- 
ligious, and for this end they are humbly com- 
mended to the blessing of Him, who desires 
boys and girls to look up and say to Him, " My 
Father thou art the guide of my youth." 



L 



In the first place, Young Gentlemen, 
I may be allowed to congratulate you 
upon the beautiful building into which you 
have moved since I last had the pleasure of 
speaking to you. I do not know of any 
similar institution in this country, nor indeed 
in any other country, where purely pri- 
vate enterprise has secured such accom- 
modations for the prosecution of- your stud- 
ies, as you have in this place. And as we 
are influenced in a very great measure by 
our surroundings, I hope that the influence 
upon you will be happy in the highest de- 
gree, and that you will feel, even from these 
associations, a stimulus to the prosecution 
of your preparatory work, through which, 
by the blessing of God, you are to be fitted 

for a future position in the world. 
1* 



IO LECTURE I. 



If one of you should present his writing- 
book to the Writing Master, with its pages 
shockingly defaced by the ink-bottle being 
poured over it, and assign as the reason for 
its condition, that the ink-bottle had spilled 
itself on the copy-book, he would tell you 
in a moment that that story could not be 
believed. Why could it not be believed ? 
Because there is a law in the human mind, 
made by the Creator — that every effect 
must have a cause ; and not only must 
have a cause, but the cause itself must 
be adequate to the producing of the ef- 
fect ; and everybody knows, who has the 
slightest observation, that it is not the way 
for ink-stands to get up and spill them- 
selves over your copy-books. You will 
find all through life, an instinctive conviction 
in the human mind that effects must have 
sufficient and suitable causes. Now, men 
reason in that way in relation to the world 
itself. Here is a great effect — this universe, 



LECTURE I. II 



and it must have had a cause adequate to 
the production of that effect ; and that cause 
which is adequate to the production of the ef- 
fect is found in the Almighty God, the King 
Eternal, Immortal, Invisible, the Blessed and 
only Potentate, and Creator of all things. 
He it is of whom the Word says : " He 
spake, and it was done. He commanded, 
and it stood fast." The Book of Genesis 
gives an account of the manner in which 
this great effect was called into existence by 
this Almighty cause ; and it is in that Book 
of Genesis that you can trace the history 
of our race, from the very beginning, and 
where you learn some other valuable lessons, 
touching God, and the welfare of our race. 
No doubt you know that when our Crea- 
tor placed Adam in the garden of Eden, He 
made certain distinct arrangements for his 
benefit, which arrangements were intended 
to bear upon the whole race. I would like 
to speak to you about one or two of those 



12 LECTURE I. 



arrangements : and you will see for what 
practical purpose, before I come to the last. 
In the first place, in the making of man, 
there was one man and one woman ; they 
were placed and united together as husband 
and wife. In that way our Creator laid the 
foundation for families, and so for all those 
relationships which spring up among us ; 
such as father, mother, brother, sister, child ; 
and these have their spring and fountain- 
head in that great act of the Creator, by 
which He took one man and one woman 
and made them husband and wife. 

Perhaps you never reflected, Young 
Gentlemen, how large a part of your life 
is connected with the duties springing out 
of that relation — to be good sons of fathers 
and mothers, to be good brothers to your 
brothers, and manly brothers to your sisters. 
These are duties which spring necessarily 
out of that plan formed at the beginning, 



LECTURE I. 13 



when one man and one woman laid the 
foundations of the family. I would like to 
say to you, that the happiness you are to 
carry through your whole life will turn in a 
great degree upon the fidelity with which you 
do the duties that spring out of that relation ; 
and I will say further, what I feel the older 
pupils here will understand, that every one 
of those sins, which by their very nature and 
badness cannot be spoken about to one 
another, is an assault on that happy relation 
which the Creator established at the begin- 
ning ; and it is impossible for any boy to 
make such an assault without paying the 
penalty, some day or another. Let us try 
to feel that God is good when He gives us 
families, and we are to be good members of 
families, for our happiness, and for His 
glory. 

There are many persons who think and 
feel, " Oh ! that I could get away from law" — 
that this would make them supremely happy. 



14 LECTURE I. 



They do not like authority. They are vexed 
and irritated by being under control ; it 
seems to them that if they could only do 
what they pleased, their felicity would be 
perfect. Now we are in the habit of saying 
that there was perfect happiness in Paradise. 
But there was not freedom from Law in 
Paradise. When the Lord placed man there, 
He pointed, out one tree, and said, " Of the 
fruit of this tree thou shalt not eat, for in 
the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely 
die." Look into this yourselves, Young 
Gentlemen, and you will soon become con- 
scious of certain faculties within you. There is 
that in your mind which makes you love, 
and that we call your Affections ; there is that 
in your mind which weighs things and 
comes to conclusions, and that we call 
Judgment ; there is that in your mind 
which recalls past events, Memory ; that 
which enables you to think of objects away 
from your sight, Imagination ; that which 



LECTURE I. 1 5 



enables you to pronounce whether anything 
is right or wrong, and that is Conscience. 
Now, Law is addressed to the conscience. 
We do not give Law to the lower creatures, 
because they have no conscience ; but it is 
given to you and to me, because you and I 
have consciences. From the very beginning 
the Creator said to man : " Thou shalt not ! " 
making an appeal to your conscience ; plac- 
ing you under Law. Now, I should like you 
to think of that. There is no happiness in 
escaping from Law. Adam tried that, and 
he broke the law, but instead of making 
himself more happy, he made himself more 
miserable ; and so it is with you, and with 
your elders. As soon as we separate our- 
selves from the Law made by the Creator, 
and by those whom the Creator has put over 
us, we begin to be unhappy, and he who 
may escape the worst of the miseries for a 
time, cannot escape them long. 

That conscience within us is a kind of 



1 6 LECTURE I. 



self-acting power. The moment a man feels 
" I have done wrong," that moment the con- 
science in the man must begin to take ven- 
geance upon him. So, if you want a little 
Paradise in your home, try to remember, 
" Thou shalt not." Though one may say to 
you, " Thou canst sin, and not surely die," 
remember, that he goes against a truthful, 
all-wise Creator, and advises you to your 
injury, and that your safest course is to be 
guided by " Thou shalt not." 

There is that curious arrangement of the 
time made by the Creator in periods of 
weeks, by the intervention of one day — the 
Day of Rest. Men were taught on one par- 
ticular day — the seventh — to rest. Now, it 
is not worth while for us to ask why He did 
this ; it is enough to settle it in our minds 
that it was His will when He divided it into 
periods, that one-seventh part of the time 
was to be taken from common uses and put 



LECTURE I. I J 



to holy uses. That law is standing, still, and it 
is a very important matter that you and I 
.should keep it. Our bodies need the rest of 
that seventh day ; even the lower animals 
need it ; and a more important element in the 
rest is that we require the time for thinking 
about our Creator, and heaven, and our life 
there. I do not suppose that the majority 
of you work so excessively hard at your 
studies as to lie down at night with wearied 
bodies and jaded minds ; but I am sure you 
do need the rest of each returning night for 
each returning day's duties. Precisely so 
the body and mind together need the rest 
of the seventh day. But it is to be the rest, 
not of an animal, but of a rational, intelli- 
gent being. Most students find that rest 
comes not from absolute inactivity, but by 
change of occupation. If you have been 
studying geography at home until you are 
wearied, it will relieve the mind to turn to 
history, and after poring over history, to 



1 8 LECTURE I. 



turn to grammar, and from grammar to 
mathematics. A change of employment 
relieves the mind and body. If you could 
apply the word to the mind, you could say 
that a new set of muscles came into opera- 
tion, just as with the body. Now, on the 
same principle, there is real rest to the 
human mind when we apply the seventh 
part of the time to the consideration of 
things, which belong to the life to come. 
Here is a man with whom money and trade 
have occupied his thoughts all the week ; 
here is another who has been writing for the 
newspapers all the week, and has no time to 
think about the future life, and to read the 
Word of God ; here is a man going to and fro, 
making bargains : the seventh day stops all 
of them and says, " Here is the unsearchable 
riches " — and he gets real rest, the rest that 
makes him better ; and when he goes back 
again on Monday morning to his work, it is 
to feel: " I have been in the presence of 



LECTURE I. 19 



the Master yesterday. I was with God, my 
Creator ; I spoke to Him, and He spoke to 
me ; I told Him what I wished to be ; what 
I wanted at His hand." So that man's 
heart is made purer and truer, and if there 
comes an occasion to him to do something 
wrong on the Monday, he will say : " It can- 
not be right ; I cannot do this base thing ; 
it will not be pleasing to Him with whom I 
spent yesterday, who lost His life in dying 
for me.'' So, if men kept that rule which 
was from the beginning, when time was 
divided into periods, and gave one-seventh 
part of their time to the Lord, they would 
be wiser, happier, and truer. 

I think there is a time in the experience 
of every one, when he gets impatient of 
work. " Oh ! I wish that I could get rid of 
this toil, and be perfectly idle ; how happy 
I would be ! " Now, my friends, I want 
you to feel that that is a mistake ; it does 



20 LECTURE I. 



not make any one better to be free from 
the necessity of work. The best proof of 
that is that after the Creator put man into 
Paradise, one of the first things that He 
arranged for the race was regular, steady, 
continuous work. Man was put into the 
Garden, as we are told, to dress and keep it. 
It was not only useful work, and pleasant 
work, but it was necessary work. The 
Creator intended it should be done ; that it 
was necessary for the comfort and welfare 
of the creature Adam, and that he should 
do it. If you want to make a Paradise of 
your lives, to be truly and happily estab- 
lished, act on that plan, and arrange for 
steady work. 

Now look at the four relations that have 
been alluded to. The family made for man ; 
the law made for man's conscience ; the 
Sabbath made for man's soul ; and work suit- 
able for man's body ; and complying with 
these arrangements, we may feel that we 



LECTURE I. 2 1 



regain something of Paradise. If you want 
a little Paradise back again, you must act on 
these arrangements : the Family, the Law, 
the Day of Rest, and proper Work from day 
to day. This point I wish to fix upon your 
minds. You have to do work for a little 
time here. It is now the work of study, 
the work of learning, the work of getting 
the right kind of preparatory training, so as 
to be fitted for the sober duties of life when 
they come to you. So, Young Gentlemen, 
hold on to honest, steady, hard work. Even 
the small boys must do this. When I was 
at school and college, I recollect we said to 
ourselves at times, " Let the lesson slide 
to-day ; " and when we let it slide one day, 
we very likely let it slide next day, and 
excused ourselves on this plea, that we were 
sure to make a spurt just before the exam- 
ination came, and by the spurt pull up all 
those idle days, when we let the duties 
slide. I am old enough now to know that 



2 2 LECTURE I. 



that was a most vicious way. The wisest 
plan is to do the duties of the day, the 
duties of each, week, in the day and the 
week when they come to us. Then we 
can do without the spurt at the end. To do 
well what we are to do, we must be method- 
ical, and because we are bound to do it, we 
ought to do it well. One element of the 
mighty power which a boy acquires in his 
character, is to learn at school to do the 
duties of each day in that day. Put him 
in an office ; and suppose he did not answer 
the letters of the day until the morrow? 
Make a physician of him, and suppose he 
postponed the visiting of a patient, seriously 
ill, till the morrow ? Or a clergyman, who 
put off the preparation of his sermon till 
the end of the week — to Saturday night, 
and then hurried it over, so that the people 
next Sunday in the church closed their eyes 
to go to sleep ? That is the way all through. 
Then, if you are to do well in your life, you 



LECTURE I. 23 



must learn to do thoroughly whatever comes 
to you in your school time, and in this way 
you will make the best and most thorough 
preparation for the performance of the great 
things you have to do for the glory of our 
Father in Heaven. 

It is the ordinance of our Creator that we 
should live by our work. "Oh," says 
some boy, " if I were only a millionaire, 
and had many hundreds of thousands of 
dollars to call my own, I would escape the 
necessity of work, and would be very 
happy. " 

Many of you know that one of the rich- 
est men in this city was Mr. Astor, who 
died the other day. This man's property 
was probably as large as any man's on this 
continent, and he was an old man. Many 
of you know, perhaps, that there was not 
probably a man in this city who for the last 
few years worked more regularly, more dili- 
gently and constantly, than did that richest 



24 LECTURE I. 



man in the community. And I presume if 
you talked to him about it, he would have 
said something like this : " Why should I 
not work ? I am better employed so than 
if I were idle. The Creator has been pleased 
to give me property. My duty is to make 
the best use of it, and not to let it go to 
wreck or loss ; my nature is happier and 
more complete for doing it." There is a 
vulgar, stupid prejudice in the minds of many 
persons, against those who are rich, as if it 
was some fault to be charged upon them. 
The fault which is to be charged is the love 
of riches for the riches' sake. God judges ; 
you and I are not to be judges. I want you 
to feel as this man felt, that in order to be 
happy in life you must be working men, and 
it does not matter in what department of labor 
you are to do the work ; it may be with your 
pen, your hand, your brain, your influence, 
your counsel. If you are to be truly useful 
in the world, you are to be working men. 



LECTURE I. 25 



The rule of the Deity is, that "He that will 
not work, shall not eat. " A great many of 
the troubles that afflict us this very moment, 
arise from the efforts of men to let other 
people work that they shall eat.. It can't be 
done. If we are to be useful, you and I 
must work, and in working we must have 
true and rightful objects before us. 

Who fixes these objects? It is hardly 
necessary for me to> tell you.- He who made 
us has the right: to > fix- them, and He only. 
What can we- know of the purposes for" 
which wet were formed? But the Former 
knows,, and' all our object should be to find ; 
out and to do His will and to sanctify His 
glorious name. - 

There are many of you that have splen- 
did 1 advantages, — parents who love you, 
friends 1 who are fond of you, and homes in 
which you are cared for. You have teach- 
ers to direct your education and to form 
your minds. You can have the best books 



2 6 LECTURE I. 



and the best advantages. You live in a free 
nation and under good institutions; you have 
this broad continent laid before you. Let 
me urge upon you to be diligent, steady, 
pious, hard-working students. A student 
is one who works at his studies. Students 
work for a proper object — not merely to 
make money, to get fame, to secure a posi- 
tion, but to be able to do good to others, 
and thereby to glorify their Father who is 
in heaven. And the boy who works with 
that aim before his mind acquires a certain 
kind of greatness by doing it. He is a 
stronger boy, he is a braver boy ; because 
in his secret heart (he may not talk with his 
fellow creatures around about it) there is 
this noble, great, and dignifying purpose, 
" I am not living for myself, but I am living 
for Him who made me. " He who made 
the rules in Paradise at the beginning, laid 
down rules for you and me, which, if we 
only follow and take as our way, because 



LECTURE I. 27 



His way, will bring us to another Paradise in 
the world to come, where we shall constant- 
ly be in His presence glorifying Him for- 
ever. 

But, alas! Young Gentlemen, up to this 
time we have not acted in His way, so we 
need forgiveness of sin ; so you need to say, 
" Father, I have done wrong, I have offend- 
ed against thee ; I have forgotten the way ; 
I have been bad, selfish, passionate, and 
peevish ; I have been disobedient ; Father, 
forgive me." That is what we call confession 
of sin, and there is no real religion without 
it. We must confess our sins against Him 
whom we offend. He has told us to do it, 
and He will forgive us, and when He for- 
gives us, we shall love Him back again and 
so seek to do His holy will. 

The other day I heard of a young gentle- 
man at college for the first year, who was 
home at Thanksgiving, and was going back 
to college the day after. He said to his 



t8 LECTURE I. 



mother, " Won't you start earlier from the 
house than the time for the cars, so that I 
can have a ride with you for an hour ? " The. 
mother said " Yes." The mother was fond- of 
her boy, as mothers usually are- very fond- 
of the boys. On the ride he said to. her :. 
" Mother, I don't understand?: this ; sprne boys;, 
at college seem to be very glapl; to spend: 
their vacation at other boys' 1 houses, instead 
of at home. I don't understand that, for 
there is noplace^ want to, go, to, so, much as 
to my home. Thereis.npthjng so pleasant to- 
me as to be home with you, mother." The 
mother kept that word' in, her heart and told; 
it with tears, in her eyes, "■ It makes ,m^- so> 
glad that my boy finds his home the happiest: 
place in the world;" The point I : ma,ke to> 
you is this.. That bay fe away... at college 
hundreds of miles- from, his mother ;~ the lo ve- 
in his hea^rt: isc just the .same. . Some^ on& 
comes and asks him to* do something of whtcife 
he kn o ws:. his 3 mother ,* would i not approve. 



LECTURE I. 29 



He stops and thinks : " Shall I do this ? 
How would mother like it if she knew it ? 
It would grieve her to know it ; no, I won't 
do it; I love my mother and I will not do it." 
And you know that everything in that boy's 
life will become purer from that love and 
from the influence of her life. Now, I want 
you so to live, in the sight of the unseen 
God, that everything will become purer and 
better in your life ; and that when tempted 
to do something against your conscience 
you will say: " No, I will not do it ; I will not 
offend a holy God. He would not have me 
to do it, and because He does not wish it I 
will turn my back against it." 

What I have said to-day, Young Gentle- 
men, is merely introductory. Try to keep 
it in your mind, as next week there will be 
something more to be said, and the week 
after, in connection with it. Now, I want to 
express my earnest hope, that every one of 
you, in every form, will be truly upright. 



2,0 LECTURE I. 



Then you will be brave and courageous 
boys, loving Him whom you cannot see, 
and turning your back upon everything that 
is bad, because in your hearts you have a 
true love for Him. Then you will be hap- 
py, truly happy, and successful workers in 
your work in school ; which will make you 
truly successful, happy workers in life, if 
God is pleased to spare your lives. 



ir. 



It is very hard, Young Gentlemen, to 
say when summer passes into autumn, or 
autumn into winter. You can tell, indeed, 
by the almanac, but the weather does not 
always respect the almanac. 

And so it is a very hard thing to say where 
one ceases to be a child, and where one be- 
gins to be a man ; but I think we should all 
agree that the boys here on my left hand, 
for the most part, are still children, and will 
be considered so, until they are grown-up 
boys and young men, by and by. We will 
agree, for the present, that they are chil- 
dren. Now, if what I say is true of the 
younger children, it will be still more true, 
and have more meaning, of the older boys, 
that "even the child is to be known by his 



32 LECTURE II. 



doings." Now, I want to talk with the chil- 
ren first, so that they will understand me. 

Yesterday was a rainy, disagreeable day, 
and the mud covered the streets and the 
sidewalks. Suppose, as you came to school, 
yesterday, you set your foot on the end of 
a plank, supposing it to be all right, when, 
in a most treacherous and unexpected way, it 
splashes the mud over you. Now, it would 
be a very childish thing for you to stop and 
punish the plank. A very little child might 
lose his temper and throw a stone at it ; but 
you know quite well that it was not caused 
by the plank. Why ? Because the plank 
has not any thought ; did not intend any- 
thing; did not know what it was doing. 
But suppose a boy, eight years of age, came 
out of one of the houses and splashed the 
mud, purposely, upon you. Then you could 
blame the boy, and it would be a proper 
thing to have the boy punished. Why? 
Because the boy is not like the plank ; he 



LECTURE II. 33 



has a mind, and he intended it ; he has will, 
he has the right of choice ; he, in his own 
mind, decided to do that thing. Well, now, 
one of the differences between the boy and 
the plank, among others, is that the plank 
has no moral character, and the boy has. 

I wonder if you can remember these two 
words — moral character. The plank has no 
moral character ; the boy has. Now, moral 
character is of two kinds — good and bad. 
A boy that has a malicious mood, and who 
capriciously and wantonly injures another, 
has a bad moral character. I remember, 
once, a good many years ago, going to see 
a family which was quite poor. It so hap- 
pened that a boy nine or ten years of age, 
was with me, at the same time when the 
message was brought to me. So we went 
and saw this poor family in quite an humble 
home. They told their story to me, and it 
was a very sad one ; in fact, they had not 
enough to eat, and were hungry. I did 



34 LECTURE II. 



what was proper to do, and the boy came 
away with me. He did not make any ob- 
servation, but I found out, incidentally, two 
or three days after, that the next day that 
boy made his way to this house by himself, 
and gave all his pocket-money to the 
children of the family, and made them 
promise that they would not tell that he 
had been there and given them money. 
Now, you would all agree that that was a 
sign of a good moral character — one not 
selfish ; thinking of others ; willing to deny 
himself in order to do good works. 

Now, in boys, and even in children, there 
is moral character, good or bad ; and this 
character we show, whether good or bad, by 
the doing of the deeds which belong to 
either the former or latter. 

Now, if this is understood on the left 
hand, I am sure it will be on my right hand. 
What are the qualities, you may ask, in a 
good moral character ? for, I take it for 



LECTURE II. 35 



granted that you, in your hearts, wish to 
have a good moral character. I want to 
put it before you very simply. 

First of all, if we are to have a good 
moral character, there must be Justness. 
Justice is that which a good man does. Just- 
ness is the quality in a man that makes him 
do it. If you want to have a right charac- 
ter, you must be just. " Of course," some one 
says, " if a man is a judge, he should be just, 
but there is no use of his talking about us 
boys being just." Yes, there is! Can't you 
understand a boy that does not " play fair?" 
Well, he is lacking in justness. The boy 
who does not tell a story straight, but gives 
it a little twist to put himself in a good light 
and somebody else in a bad light, well, he is 
not just ; he has not justness. Now, boys, 
if you want to have a good moral character, 
you must begin " right there "and cultivate 
justness. The boy that plays fair and tells 
his story straight, is one who will grow up 



36 LECTURE II. 



up in that way, and he will be a just pupil, 
a just teacher, a just magistrate, if the peo- 
ple make him such, a just lawyer, a just 
judge. 

Even a child is known by his doings, 
whether poor or whether rich. If you want 
to have your character and your life good, 
morally, see that you have justness in your 
mind ; no going aside from the right, no 
want of candor, no selfish contortion of a 
thing to suit yourself, but, a straightforward, 
and manly, upright, loving, saying, and do- 
ing " the truth." 

In the next place, to have a good moral 
character, there must be along with just- 
ness, Goodness. Now, goodness is of two 
kinds. There is a goodness we have in 
ourselves, and there is a goodness that 
shows itself toward those around about 
us ; but usually they go together. Suppose 
I told you that I had a candle at home, 



LECTURE II. 37 



which, when I strike a match and light it, will 
throw its rays to the north and south ; but 
it will not show any light to the east and 
west. "That is a remarkable candle!" you 
would say, " and no one ever saw anything 
like it; for all the candles I ever saw burn 
threw the rays of light around in every di- 
rection." Well, it is so with every candle I 
have seen, and I tell you I could not believe 
in the existence of a candle which sent its 
rays to one side, and never sent them to the 
other. Just so is it with goodness. If a 
man really has goodness in himself, he is 
like a candle giving light, and his goodness, 
like the light around the candle, shines all 
around him. It takes various forms. For 
example, he has kindness toward those with 
whom he is mingling day after day. He has 
kind words, and does good as he has op- 
portunity. He has gentleness, — gentleness 
in manner, in language, and in all things that 
he may do. Small acts of gentleness go 



2,8 LECTURE II. 



to make character. I want to tell you 
that if we wish to have a real power over 
others to do good, why, we can have it 
by gentleness. It makes us great. It is 
written in the Best of Books that in the 
temple of Solomon all the nails were of 
gold. Now, you know, gold is compara- 
tively soft, and if they were nails, how could 
they be driven ? They must have been 
screws, it is concluded. A nail has a sharp 
point and flat head, and you come down 
upon it with a hammer and drive it in ; and if 
any of you try to do any carpentering, and 
do not hit the nail straight, you break the 
head off, or the point, or it goes the wrong 
way ; and sometime, if you are not skillful, it 
splits the wood, instead of passing through 
it straight. But the screw is different. You 
take it in your fingers, and turn it around, 
and it sinuates itself into the right place. 
No noise is heard ; it splits nothing, and it 
holds fast. Now, that is the fashion in which 



LECTURE II. 39 



true gentleness works : but a violent man 
expects to do his work by blows ; the gen- 
tle man goes gently, and though he does 
not make so much noise, he does not make 
so many mistakes, and his work holds fast. 
So, if you have this goodness in yourselves, 
and have goodness to others, in kindness 
and gentleness, it is an element in a good 
moral character. 

In the third place, you must have Pure- 
ness. There is a package of sugar ; it looks 
very attractive to the eye. Put your hand 
over it, and it feels in every way like good 
sugar. Is it pure ? No ! Examine it ; 
analyze it, and a certain proportion of it is 
proved to be sand. It looks beautiful, but 
it is not pure. You are buying a piece of 
cloth. You say to the man who shows 
you it : " Is that all wool ?" " Yes ; that is 
all pure wool." You buy it, and take it to 
one who is a judge of cloth, and he tells 



4-0 LECTURE II. 



you there is a great deal of wool in it, 
but also a great deal of cotton. Cotton is 
cheaper, and not so warm as wool. There 
is a mixture of a something else in it. Now, 
take a boy; he may be a smart boy, a 
manly boy, even a just boy; but in his 
thoughts there are many things he would 
not like you nor me to know. And some- 
times he uses words that he would not wish 
his sisters or his mother to hear ; some- 
times he does a thing that he would be 
very sorry to have his friends know about. 
He is not pure ; there is a mixture of evil 
in the boy ; in his thoughts, in his words, 
perhaps, even, in his deeds. His moral 
character is bad. Therefore, if you want to 
have a good moral character, you must be in 
yourself pure. There must be this freedom in 
thought, word, and deed from everything 
that is impure. The older boys will under- 
stand me when I tell them how pure that 
Joseph was of whom we read in Genesis. 



LECTURE II. 41 



Now, a very little boy might say : " But if 
there was only a little fault in one's charac- 
ter, that would not amount to a great deal." 
Now, I should like to tell you a little story. 
A long time ago, there was a church tower 
being built in which I was interested. I 
wanted to go very near the top of it, and 
see it. One of the workmen said to me 
that it was a very long climb by the lad- 
der, " but if you choose, you can go up by 
the windlass." The windlass had a long 
chain running up a tube-like vessel in 
which they sent up the mortar and bricks 
for the workmen on the top. The man said : 
" If you are afraid, don't go." " No ; I am 
not afraid, if you are sure it is all safe," 
I said. Suppose the man had told me : 
"That chain is a strong one, for there is 
only one rotten link in the whole of it." 
I should have climbed the ladder, rather 
than go up by the chain, because that 
single defective link would be sufficient to 



42 LECTURE II. 



destroy the whole chain, by its breaking 
and letting us down to the bottom. 

Now, boys, one bad piece in your charac- 
ter, one bit of impurity in your thoughts, 
words, or acts, will be like the bad link in 
the iron chain. It destroys the whole 
chain. You know how often safety turns 
in the case of a ship on her being able to 
hold by her anchors. People who have 
gone over the sea in a ship, see an enor- 
mous iron chain, of double links, which 
is intended to hold the sheet-anchor. 
When the captain throws out his sheet- 
anchor, and the ship " rides at anchor," 
as it is called, there is a great strain on 
every link of that chain ; and if one bad 
link breaks, off goes the anchor, and the 
ship is driven before the winds, and may 
be destroyed. Now, our character is 
very much like the chain : one bad piece 
in it vitiates and spoils it. So we must 
have a pure character. 



LECTURE II. 43 



There is one thing more that must 
needs enter into a good moral character. 
The three I have named already you can, 
perhaps, remember — justness, goodness, 
pureness. Now, the fourth quality is De- 
voutness. This is, perhaps, the most im- 
portant word I have named yet, and so it 
is last, as there is a little more to be said 
about it than about the rest. I beg you to 
give me close attention. Devoutness is the 
kind of feeling with which the creature looks 
up to his Creator. Suppose you bought a 
farm of land out in Pennsylvania, for which 
you paid ten thousand dollars. Suppose it 
to be a hundred acres of ground, for which 
you paid a hundred dollars an acre. You 
have paid your money for it, and have a 
written document which shows this; after 
a little while, the land being yours, it is 
found that there are oil wells on the farm. 
You did not know about them when you 
bought the farm ; but you bought the farm, 



44 LECTURE II. 



and the oil wells go with it. Or suppose a 
coal mine to have been on this farm. It is 
yours now. And why is it yours ? You 
did not think of oil or of coal. Why, 
because you bought that farm, and every- 
thing in it is yours. Now, dear boys, 
that is the way with us and the Lord. 
We belong to him. He owns us, and, 
therefore, he owns everything in us. 
Our life, our confidence, our faith, our trust, 
our devoutness, — everything in us belongs 
to him, because he owns us. And what- 
ever we can do, if it were twenty years 
from this, belongs to him. There are 
powers you will have by-and-by, that you 
have not now. But when you come to 
have these powers, they belong to the 
Lord, because you belong to him. All you 
can do until you are a hundred years old 
belongs to him. 

Now, devoutness is the right feeling 
toward God to whom we belong, — a right 



LECTURE II. 45 



feeling of love, reverence, homage, trust, 
obedience, and if you want to have a good 
moral character, you must have that de- 
voutness. 

Have you never heard this proverb ? 
" The boy is father to the man." That is 
to say, what the boy is, the man will be. 
It is another way of saying this thing, 
that " the child is known by his doing." 
You know there are two kinds of wood, 
two ways in which the trees grow. It is 
a good while since I learned my botany, 
but I remember there is a kind of tree de- 
scribed in the books as endogenous, and 
another kind as exogenous. The endogens 
have their fibres grow straight upward, but 
the other class have pith, and then the 
layers grow round about that pith. The 
former kind the boys of another generation 
used to know in the " rattan." That is a 
good specimen of the endogenous. Most 
of the trees about us are the exogenous. 



4-6 LECTUHE II. 



When the tree is not thicker than my fin- 
ger, that which is to make the substance 
of the tree is found in the heart of the tree. 
When it becomes as thick as my body, the 
little bit of narrow, slender stem, not greater 
than the rods upon which we put a whip, is 
found in the heart of the tree. The tree 
grows around about it. 

In that sense you have to grow. There 
you are now, as boys; and what you are 
now, you always will be until you are gray- 
haired men. You have to try as boys to 
make yourselves what you shall be as gray- 
haired men. You are now, particularly 
some of you here, like the tree which is 
not much thicker than my finger. There 
will be a layer of French, English, History, 
Geography, Grammar, Metaphysics, added 
here ; a layer of Law, Medicine, Theology, 
and something else, afterward, until you 
be like the thick trees. But what you are 
now, you will be unto the end all through. 



47 

Now, I want you to be, as boys, boys of 
the right kind, so that when you are men, 
you will be men of the right kind, — good 
men, pure men, just men, fearless men, 
brave men, devout men, looking up to 
God, and trying to do his will. 

"Well ! but," some conscientious boy says, 
" there is the trouble ; I have not always 
been doing God's will. A great many times 
I did my own will, and offended God ; dis- 
pleased Him, and my conscience reproaches 
me for it. I am afraid to meet with God. 
I don't know what I shall say to Him, when 
I stand before him as the judge." Shall I 
tell you what you are to say ? When one 
goes into a court of law to be tried, and is 
placed in the presence of the judge, the 
judge will commonly put this question : 
" Who appears for this man ? " That is the 
way in which he calls for his advocate, for 
his defender, the lawyer who is to plead his 
case : and then, if the poor prisoner has 



48 LECTURE II. 



made the proper arrangements, the lawyer 
stands up before the judge and says : " Your 
Honor, I appear for the prisoner at the bar." 
It must be a terrible thing to appear before 
a judge without an advocate to plead for 
one, to hear the judge say, " Who appears 
for this man ? " and not be able to say, " I 
have an advocate." That must be terrible. 
But most terrible of all if it were the judg- 
ment seat of the Lord, and you and I were 
standing there, with no one to appear for us. 
But we need not be so. The Bible says there 
is an advocate, the Saviour, and we are to 
do with him as the prisoners, when they are 
charged, do with the lawyer ; we are to go to 
Him and tell Him that we trust Him ; tell 
Him all our case ; put our case in His hands ; 
and He will undertake the case. He promi- 
ses to appear for us and make the best de- 
fense that can be made for us. He is the Sa- 
voiur ; your Saviour and mine. Now, when 



LECTURE II. 49 



we remember all our faults and sins as the 
judge sees them, let us be sure that we have 
an advocate to appear for us. Let us put 
our case in His hands ; and we do put our 
case in His hands when we go to Him and 
tell Him all our errors and sins and ask Him 
to forgive us, and put them away. Plead 
this in the presence of the Judge, the Father 
whom we have offended. That is the way 
to be saved from the faults and sins of the 
past. When we have securely put our case 
into the Advocate's hand, and trusted and 
believed Him, and given ourselves to Him 
— when we have done that, it keeps us on 
our guard from doing wrong in the future. 
We say to ourselves, " My God has been 
so good to me; my Saviour has been so 
good to me ; it is so merciful in Him to 
forgive my faults and sins, that I do not 
want to offend against him any more." 
I knew a captain of a ship, a very brave 



5o LECTURE II. 



and noble man. He lost his life in saving 
his fellow creatures from being drowned — 
Captain Boyd, of the ship "Ajax," a British 
ship of war. His sailors were not the reg- 
ular rough lot that sailors, unfortunately, are, 
but remarkable for the goodness of their 
conduct and the steady way in which they 
carried themselves. They would not be 
seen in drunken brawls in the cities. When 
some one asked them about it, they an- 
swered : " We would not do it ; we would 
not disgrace Captain Boyd." That is the 
way that a noble man inspires others with 
the love of being noble. That is the way, 
Boys, in which we love and trust the blessed 
Redeemer when we have committed our- 
selves to Him. We have a motive then to do 
right. We would not dishonor Him whom 
we call our Master and our Lord, and whom 
we expect to "appear" for us, not by defend- 
ing us, but by pleading that we are guilty, 
but that He has paid the penalty. We 



LECTURE II 5 I 



would not dishonor Him by the doing of 
that which is wrong in His holy sight. 

Now, I shall mention these things again 
before I close, and, if you please, I shall be 
as glad if you will never mind this present 
clapping until the very last day ; then you 
can do it. But rather, instead, give this 
kind of applause. Keep very quietly in 
your mind what is said, and do nothing to 
put it out of your thoughts. 

Now, to make a good moral character, 
these things are essential : justness, good- 
ness, pureness, and devoutness — devout- 
ness being the habit of mind which leads us 
to look up to the Lord always. We do not 
need always to talk about Him. We do 
not always need to show to others that we 
are thinking about Him. But the deeds are 
the great things. " Even the child is known 
by his deeds." So, I hope God will bless 
you ; and help you to grow up into a pure, 
good, noble, moral character. 



52 LECTURE II. 



Now, if all be well this day week, this will 
be followed up by something else which 
comes in the same natural connection, and 
which, I hope, the older boys will be able 
to understand. 



III. 

I had the opportunity last week, Young 
Gentlemen, to speak a little to you with 
regard to those qualities in our character 
that are usually attended with success in 
life ; and which you ought to cultivate in 
yourselves, if you are to be strong, and 
thoroughly good men. 

Now, to-day, I wish to raise the question 
in your mind : Why do so many men fail in 
life? And when I say " fail" I do not mean 
— stop in business, or suspend payments, or 
compromise with their creditors, or break 
down, as we are accustomed to describe the 
misfortunes of men in business. Of course 
you know very well that a man may stop, 01* 
fail, or have to compound with his creditors, 
who is thoroughly and truly honest. He is 



54 LECTURE III. 



not to be blamed for failing, but greatly to be 
pitied. Many persons who have been im- 
pelled to take that step, have afterwards 
acted in such an honorable way as to stand 
better after than they did before, and by- 
and-by have been able to achieve great 
success for themselves. I am not speaking 
about failure of that kind at all, but about 
the failure that many persons make who 
start out apparently intended and adapted to 
do something great and good in life, but who 
entirely miss the mark, and barely obtain for 
themselves subsistence, and never effect any- 
thing of that which they hoped to attain. It 
has been stated publicly, but I have no means 
of verifying the statement, yet I suppose it 
is likely to be true, that of a hundred young 
men who go into Boston, and enter upon 
business life, ninety-five fail of marked suc- 
cess, and only five per cent, thoroughly at- 
tain their way to great commercial success in 
such a city as Boston. 



LECTURE III. 55 



Now you are looking forward to your life. 
Some of you are to be lawyers, some doc- 
tors, some merchants, some clergymen, and 
surely it will be a very good thing for you to 
have this thought in your mind ; "I want 
to inquire how I am to attain real success, 
and so I want to avoid the rocks on which 
others have made shipwreck. " And the 
sooner you begin to know these rocks, 
Young Gentlemen, the better it is for you. 

Now I shall mention four causes to day 
which seem to account for many persons not 
attaining real success, and I think you can 
very easily remember them. I hope you will 
give me your best attention, while I try to 
put them simply before you. 

In the first place, there are many who 
never inspire confidence at the beginning ; 
something about them prevents them from 
being trusted ; sometimes they have a very 
unfortunate manner. You ought to strive 
against that, and try to reform it. Sometimes 



56 LECTURE III. 



they have naturally a tortuous way and in- 
stead of going straight to the point, it seems 
to be better for them to go round about it. 
They are lacking in frankness and honesty 
of manner, and nobody expects anything 
good to come from them, and they do not 
get a chance. Now you can understand, in 
the case of boys and young men that unfor- 
tunately have something about them that 
can't be overcome, that you are to show 
great pity and tenderness and compassion 
for them. I don't know anything in which 
real religion shows itself more than in a 
tender, considerate regard shown toward 
some one of these unfortunate peculiarities 
never to be overcome ; and I hope you will 
never be wanting in that real gentlemanly 
considerate manner. But I am speaking 
now of those things that we can overcome, 
if we would only take a little pains. And 
you cannot understand, boys, as long as you 
are boys, how much turns upon the impres- 



LECTURE III. 5 J 



sions we make upon persons in the begin- 
ning, so as to inspire confidence, and get 
the chance to make our way in life. Some- 
times there is that in one's very manner, that 
leads persons to believe and trust. There 
is a very pretty story told — I cannot vouch 
for its truth, but it ought to be true — of a 
poor little boy, who found that his mother 
could not support him, so he determined to 
support himself, and applied for the position 
of cabin-boy, on a ship. He presented him- 
self to the officer on board, and said, "If 
you please sir, I want you to take and make 
me a cabin-boy, and I intend to be an hon- 
est boy. " Who recommends you ?" " No- 
body." "Where are your parents ? " "I have 
only a mother, and she does not live here." 
" How am I to know about you ? Have 
you anything to show who you are ? " " No- 
thing. " " Not a single thing to show what 
your name is, boy ?" He unbuttoned his 
jacket and took a little book out of his 



58 LECTURE III. 



pocket, and said, " If you please, sir, my 
name is written here !■" It was in the front 
part of a little pocket Bible, given to him in 
the Sunday-school. The captain said to 
him, "My boy, that is all I want; a boy that 
has his Bible like this, from the Sunday- 
school, is likely to be a good boy, and I will 
give you a place. " 

Of course, it is not once in ten thousand 
times, that that way of inspiring confidence 
in the beginning would occur. I have no- 
ticed this, that a boy of whom people will 
say, " Nobody expects anything from him," 
will not usually have anything for him. 
On the other hand, if his looks inspire con- 
fidence, they are stimulated to do something 
for him. Now most of you do not think of 
how you are to inspire confidence. Your 
parents have only to speak for you to- their 
friends, and you will be put in the way, "be- 
cause his parents are," so and so. There is a 
good old Latin word, stirps ; it is a great 



LECTURE III. 59 



thing to be of a good stirps. " I knew his 
grandfather and his father, I knew their 
good qualities, and I trust that the boy will 
be a good boy and not be unworthy of his 
stock." One cause of failure is that persons 
do not inspire confidence. 

In the second place, some never succeed 
from want of Industry. A boy is taken into 
an office ; a young man is studying law ; a 
young man has completed his education as 
a medical man, and is now a full-fledged 
doctor ; but they are all wanting in industry. 
Industry is a very good thing, they think, 
for the poor people, the working people, 
for the workmen in the shop, and the hands 
in a mill ; but industry does not apply to 
professional men, and men of good standing 
in life. That is a mistake. Everybody who 
wants to be successful in life must have 
industry. Keeping to the duties you are 
bound to do, is to lay patiently the basis of 
success. 



6o LECTURE III. 



There is a certain class of men who break 
down in life more than any other, viz., men 
of genius. I do hope that there is no " man 
of genius " among you. The poor men of 
genius have a hard lot in this world. They 
trust to their genius, disregarding industri- 
ous effort, and so go to the bottom. Do not 
let your aunts and sisters make you believe 
that you are a man of genius ; but try you 
to make them believe that you are a man 
of diligence and steady effort, — a man able 
to hold on ; for it is those who hold on that 
are able to effect something in the end. 
Last year, when the boating was going on, 
certain crews depended upon a spurt at the 
end. I need not say how that will work. 
Two- thirds of the way the crews take it 
easy, and at the last — at the end — put their 
strength into it. The boys, according to 
my recollection of college, were often be- 
trayed into that uncertain course. " Take it 
easy, and put on steam, — a spurt at the 



LECTURE III. 6 1 



end." It is a bad plan. Do the duties of 
the day, every day ; of every week, in the 
week; and of every month, in the month. 
You will come out best, and more speedily, 
you may be sure, in the end. 

I like these hymns that you sing. I 
don't think I have ever had more pleasure 
in hearing this hymn, " Nearer my God to 
thee," than in hearing these fresh voices 
raise the notes of that melody. You re- 
member that still simpler melody, 

" How doth the little busy bee 
Improve each shining hour." 

If there is one lazy boy here, I wish that 
" little busy bee " would sting him, so that he 
would not be lazy any more, but be diligent 
and industrious, doing every .day's duties 
on that day ; and he will come to success in 
the end. By lack of that, many persons 
come to failure, and go down to their graves 
having effected nothing. 



62 LECTURE III. 



Now, I go one step further. A great 
many persons fail in life from lack of Honor. 
Honor ! Many persons suppose that honor 
is a worldly word. I do not believe it ! 
Honor is really a Christian word, a real 
religious word, and one ought to use it in 
a real religious sense. A man of honor 
is one who can do nothing base or mean. 
He will not break his word, tell a lie, wear 
a false appearance ; not flatter nor fawn on 
anybody ; not backbite his neighbor. He 
is a man of honor. He is a person to get a 
chance in life. Such men inspire confidence 
at once. If they have a certain kind of 
diligence and energy, it will not be long 
before they come into public life. There 
men see their virtues and faults, and every- 
thing they do. Suppose they are found to 
be lacking in honor? Perhaps a medical 
man ; his brethren know they cannot de- 
pend upon him ; he is a man to take a 
mean advantage. Perhaps a clergyman ; 



LECTURE III. 63 



the " brethren " come to feel he is not the 
highest-toned sort of man. Perhaps a com- 
mercial man, and commercial men begin to 
find that he will take a base advantage. 
Perhaps a politician, and men come to find 
out that he manages his points by a little 
dexterous turn of language ; not exactly 
telling a lie, but managing to deceive, and 
so they cease to trust him any more, and 
let him go. High-minded men do not want 
to associate with that man. Letters, writ- 
ten privately and confidentially, are treated 
as public ; conversation held with him in 
frankness, he may use to my disadvantage. 
He is a mean, base, sneaking man. Many 
persons quietly drop out of the ranks be- 
cause of that lack of honor. I have heard 
this statement made, and I think it to be 
true in the main : That a man usually will 
not achieve great success in life if he does 
not stand well with his own class. Now, I 
would like you to understand this, that a 



64 LECTURE III. 



boy whom everybody dislikes and despises 
at school would need to show very good 
qualities to become a good man. A clergy- 
man whom all his brethren dislike, is likely 
to have something very doubtful about him. 
A doctor with whom the doctors will not 
associate, is put in a doubtful position. A 
merchant with whom persons will not do 
business, if they can help it, is not likely to 
be a successful merchant. Those who look 
at us, doing the same work with us, and who 
stand shoulder to shoulder with us, are not 
slow to judge us, as we do them. The 
human race will always be ready to con- 
clude that if men of his own class, who 
know him through and through, do not 
believe in him, he cannot be believed in. 
So, Young Gentlemen, if you would like 
to be successful public men when your 
whiskers come out, never forget that you 
must be men of honor ; men trusted not to 
lie, not to cheat, not to deceive, not to 



LECTURE III. 65 



steal ; men who would suffer their right 
hands to be cut off, before they would 
stoop to be dishonest men ; men who may 
not be rich, but will be men of honor. 

Now I come to the greatest thing. I like 
to put the greatest last. Many persons re- 
member the last thing spoken, if they do 
not remember what has gone before. Many 
persons fail in life for the want of the Bless- 
ing of Almighty God. 

Now, many persons talk and think as if 
the Almighty God gave His blessings wan- 
tonly and capriciously. That is not the 
case. Before the laws of the weather were 
understood, people usually supposed the 
hail and the snow came down without any 
law of regularity, and spoke of the changes 
as if the weather were a person, and re- 
ferred them jocularly to the clerk of the 
weather. We know that is not the case ; 
that there are certain definite laws according 



66 LECTURE III. 



to which the changes of the weather take 
place. In Washington and in other places, 
wise and skillful men watch these laws, and 
predict what kind of weather we shall have. 

Now, I want you to feel and think that 
the Almighty God does not give his bless- 
ings wantonly and arbitrarily, as when a man 
puts pieces of paper in a bag, and puts his 
hand in and takes up the first paper he finds 
and draws it out. That is not the way. 
God gives His blessing in accordance with 
certain laws and certain things in us which 
make us fit to receive it. 

For example, knowledge is a blessing. 
God gives knowledge to those who use their 
minds. Money is a blessing. He gives 
money to those who are diligent, prudent, 
and industrious. Success is a blessing. God 
gives it to those who are straightforward, 
high-minded, and capable of diligence ; and 
just so of all other blessings. Now, we can- 
not get forward unless we have the blessing 



LECTURE III. 67 



of Almighty God. Suppose a man says 
to himself, " I am depending upon the 
blessing of Almighty God. My business is 
to make guns. " And he intends to succeed 
and to get richer by making flint-lock guns. 
Men used these years ago. He has a fac- 
tory up in New England, filled with flint 
guns, and hundreds of people all the time 
engaged in making flint guns. Somehow 
he does not succeed. Now, it is very dis- 
heartening for that man ; " God does not 
give me his blessing," he says ; but he is 
behind the times ; he does not use intelli- 
gence ; he is not complying with the laws 
according to which God gives his blessing ! 
Flint guns are out of date, and only guns 
with percussion caps are used now, and the 
man cannot expect a blessing. 

Suppose a man who is a manufacturer of 
clothing should make great coats out of fine 
cloth ? Men do not want great coats of that 
kind ; they want rough " Ulsters," and not 



68 LECTURE III. 



smooth cloth. Of course, the coats lie on 
his hands, and he thinks it very curious, 
and says, " I am not having God's blessing." 
He does not use common sense to see what 
is wanted, so as to obtain the blessing 
which he has not got. You must put your- 
selves in the way in which that blessing 
comes. I think a boy, with very great pro- 
priety, can go down upon his knees and say 
to that God to whom you were singing : 
" Oh, my father, I need help from Thee. I 
have difficult lessons which I wish to learn, 
and to be a good scholar. Quicken my mind 
and give me strength, and help me to learn 
these lessons, so that I can make progress." 
I think a good boy might do that. I think 
that a tender, loving Father would give 
grace and help to the boy. Now, the boy 
in that action puts himself in the way of 
getting the blessing. There are certain 
fixed rules and laws that the Creator has 
put in the constitution of things ; and if we 



LECTURE III. 69 



drive ourselves against these laws, we can- 
not have his blessing. 

I think even the smallest boys here can 
understand that, as they look at me and 
listen. Suppose you had to do a multipli- 
cation sum in your mind : you have to make 
this multiplication, " 9 times 7 are 49, " and 
you go on and finish the sum, and it is 
brought before the master who has the class 
in charge. He says there is something 
wrong in that sum. You go over that 
again, and still the same thing is there — 
9 x 7=49 * an d that spoils the whole 
thing. Now, suppose the boy has that 
mistake pointed out to him, and he says : 
" Look here ; why should not 9 x 7 be 
49 ? I think 9x7 must be 49," and 
suppose he gets all the boys to agree 
and vote that 9x7 is 49. The chairman 
says, "The resolution is, 9x7 is 49. Are 
you ready for the question ? As many as 
are in favor of that say aye." And all the 



JO LECTURE III. 



scholars but one say " aye ; " and that one 
is a little fellow — one of these small boys ; 
he cries out, " No." That little boy is right, 
and the whole school is wrong. That one 
boy who voted no, is in the right. Why ? 
Because the Creator has fixed it in the con- 
stitution of things, and if the whole body 
of men agree to dash against the fixed con- 
stitution of things, the fixed constitution of 
things stands, and of necessity they go down. 
I hope you can understand it. There are 
laws all over just as regular and uniform as 
the laws of multiplication, and although a 
large majority of the human race vote 
against these laws, the laws stand the same ; 
and if we disregard the laws, we shall not 
have the blessing we expect. One of these 
laws is obedience to parents and teachers. 
Listen to this text, from the Best of Books : 
"The eye that mocketh at his father, and 
despiseth to obey his mother, the ravens of 
the valley shall pick it out, and the young 



LECTURE III. 71 



eagles shall eat it." Just think of the force 
of that. It is taken from the striking fea- 
tures of Eastern life, where a man is killed 
in the open air, and his dead body flung 
away on the sands, and the vultures from 
afar smell it and flock to the spot, and the 
ravens pick out the eyes, and the vultures 
devour the flesh. Well, if there be any boy 
now who does this thing, he may not be 
flung out on the sands, according to the 
vivid Oriental representation, but sorrows 
and evils and calamities will fall upon him, 
and his conscience will not be at ease ; and 
perhaps, fifty years from this, when he is an 
old man, and his hair is white, his own sons 
or his own grandsons will shoot arrows of 
grief and sorrow into his heart, and he will 
say, " What better could I expect ? When 
I was a boy I disregarded and despised my 
parents, and broke their hearts. Now these 
are taking revenge upon me. That is what 
I was to them." That is one of the fixed 



72 LECTURE III. 



laws — obedience to parents and to those 
whom God has placed over us ; and if we 
force ourselves against these fixtures in the 
constitution of things, we cannot have the 
blessing of Almighty God. 

Now, we all want to have that blessing. 
We all want to succeed. The principal of 
this school, I feel very sure, has, next to 
the glory of God, no higher wish than that 
he should turn out from this school good 
boys, who, by-and-by, will be good young 
men at college and elsewhere ; or by-and- 
by to be practical men in this city, or any 
other city where your lot shall be cast. We 
want you to succeed in life, and would be 
sorry to have you fail. Now keep these 
rules in your mind, and if you wish to in- 
spire confidence in the future, continue to 
deserve that confidence by industry and 
diligence ; continue to be worthy of high 
honor ; and, to crown all, evermore seek 
for the blessing of Almighty God. And 



LECTURE III. 73 



that you may have that you must put your- 
self in the way of it. He does not give his 
blessing without respect to the laws in ac- 
cordance with which He carries on the 
work of his providence and the work of 
his grace. 

And that word " grace " reminds me that I 
must say another word. Some of you 
may, perhaps, say, " That is all very good, 
and if I had to start over again, from the 
very beginning, I would note what you say 
to me, and try to act on that plan ; but 
now, ten, fifteen, or sixteen years of my life 
have passed away, and I have committed a 
great many faults and sins, and I cannot go 
back all that long period. What am I to 
do with all these faults and sins ? " Well, 
my dear Boys, just there grace comes as 
forgiveness, a free gift from Him who 
died on the cross that we might have eter- 
nal life. All you have to do is to go and 
tell that Dear Father to whom you sung 



74 LECTURE III. 



" Nearer my God. " Tell Him all your 
faults and sins. It is called confession in 
the Bible. Go and confess to Him without 
any reserve or fear, and ask Him for the 
sake of the Gracious Redeemer, to blot 
out your sins, and put in you His grace. 
Oh, He will do it, for He is long suffering 
and abundant in goodness and truth. And 
then He will take care of your young lives, 
and will guide you and keep you from 
temptation, and make you diligent, suc- 
cessful, industrious, honorable, gentle, pious, 
and eminently good, and give His blessing. 
He will give you success in this life, and 
after this life ends, in the world to come, 
He will give you life everlasting. Now let 
us join in a few words of simple prayer, 
that for you God may do these things. 



IV. 

I dare say it has come into the minds of 
some of the boys that we are living, all of us, 
in two worlds at one and the same time. 
Here to-day, you and I are living really in 
two worlds. There is this present world 
that we see, whose sounds we hear, and 
whose experiences we pass through, that 
we call the world of sense. And there is, 
at the same time, that other world, of which 
you have been singing just now, which is 
not the world of sense, but just as real as 
this world. God is in that world ; Jesus, 
of whom you have been singing, is in that 
world; the angels are in it; the departed 
spirits of men are in it; and that world is 
just as truly actual as this present world, 



76 • LECTURE IV. 



through which we walk and in which we 
live. 

It is no objection to that world that the 
senses do not take note of it. You take 
a horse-shoe magnet, and you can mea- 
sure it, and see so many inches ; you 
can weigh it, and have so many ounces' 
weight ; you look at it, and handle it, and, 
if you put it up to your nose, there is a cer- 
tain smell of iron about it ; but there is 
nothing that your sight or touch will enable 
you to discover of the magnetism in it. 
There is magnetism in it, over and above 
anything which your senses can perceive; 
and so it is with this other world, into which 
we are going, and with which we have to do. 
Always mingling with it, we do not dis- 
cover it with our senses. We know it by 
our faith. We believe it partly by some- 
thing the Creator has put in our hearts, and 
still more by what He has declared in His 
Blessed Word. 



lecture iv. yy 



Now, I want you to understand, dear 
boys, that every now and then God is open- 
ing the door of that other world. Some of 
you have had a little sister die. I saw one 
yesterday, three and a half years old, with 
the loveliest face ; more beautiful than the 
flowers round about her in the coffin. 
That is the kind of door God opens to the 
other world. We see a little body lying in 
the coffin, but we know that the soul is not 
there ; it has stepped into the other world. 
God opens the door every day, and makes 
us know that there is a real other world. 
Now, you and I will be in a great degree what 
we are in relation to that world. If we dis- 
regard it, and do not get to thinking rightly 
about it, we shall be offending God, for God is 
in that other world, and it is with God that 
you and I have mainly to do. 

It is a very common thing to hear that we 
should live for the glory of God. I shall not 
wonder if that word " glory" deceives some 



7 8 LECTURE IV. 



persons, so that they do not see the real 
meaning of things. Suppose, instead of 
" glory/'we say " credit." When you gradu- 
ate from this school-room, some will go to 
college and some to business. If you are 
intelligent and educated, every one will say 
it is to the credit of this school. Many of 
you, when grown, I hope, will have this 
said of them : " This boy is a credit to the 
school." When you come here from your 
homes, and you are good, quiet, gentle and 
true, people will look at you and say : 
" You are a credit to your home." You 
reflect credit upon it. In other words, you 
give it glory. You and I have to be a 
credit to the Almighty God. We have to 
live so as to be a credit to Him. He has 
made us, and He has given us one whom we 
call our Lord and Master ; and it is about 
that I want to talk to you this morning. 

We are to be His servants, actively doing 
His will, and so serving Him that we shall be 



LECTURE IV. 79 



a credit to Him. Perhaps some one says, 
" There are some who cannot actively do 
anything. How can they be a credit to 
Him ? " Perhaps some of you think of a 
little brother who has some bodily disease, 
and so is unable to walk ; some of you per- 
haps see poor cripples who seem not able 
to do anything. Some of you know of 
aunts or uncles or cousins who are always 
confined to their beds, who are constant in- 
valids. When you suppose that they cannot 
glorify God and do Him credit, ah ! that is 
the gravest kind of mistake, and one to 
be got out of your minds. There are two 
ways in which credit is shown forth. One, 
actively doing ;• the other, patient suffering ; 
and there are many persons who do Him 
credit and give Him glory by the patience 
with which they suffer, no less than others 
who give Him credit by the activity in 
which they work. 

When you were a little child you were 



8o LECTURE IV. 



taught to say that prayer, " Thy will be 
done upon earth as in heaven ; " and if, 
by God's appointment, I were laid on my 
back, helpless with spinal disease, lying 
there patiently, and feeling " God has done 
this, and I am satisfied," I should be glorify- 
ing Him perhaps as much as by preaching 
sermons in the pulpit. 

There is one thing about that which even 
the little boys can understand, if they 
take the trouble to think about it. There 
are some kinds of goodness and some 
kinds of virtue that we shall not have the 
chance to show in heaven, but can have 
the opportunity to show here upon earth. 
There will be no need, boys, for patience 
in heaven; there will be nothing to bear 
there, but everything to enjoy. If ever we 
are to show patience, it is here we are to 
do it, when we are suffering under God's 
providential hand. So that if you must stop 
in your homes, and have to suffer and lie 



LECTURE IV. 8 1 



up, and continue to be in your bed for 
weeks and months, do not suppose you can 
do no credit to the Lord. You can, if you 
will only have in your minds the right spirit 
of submission to Him, and say of Him, " God 
has done this, and let him do with me 
whatever he pleases. I am content. His 
will be done." 

I want to tell you quite briefly three or four 
things which you ought to seek to have 
in yourselves. Suppose, for example, that 
Mr. A. T. Stewart engages a young man for 
his employment at his great store on Broad- 
way, and says to him, '' You are to come 
and begin work on the first day of January." 
The young man walks down, at the beginning 
of the year, to the store and turns in. Step- 
ping up to one of the desks or counters, he 
begins to tumble things about quite general- 
ly, putting them in a new arrangement alto- 
gether, without speaking to anybody. You 
would say, What a strange young man that 



82 LECTURE IV. 



is ! And the gentleman in charge of the 
department into which he has stumbled 
would come and take him to task, and say, 
" What business have you there ? " " Why, 
Mr. Stewart engaged me in his service." 
" Did you ask him what to do ? '' No ; I 
never thought of that ; he engaged me to 
go to work for him, and I am working for 
him." The foreman of the department 
would say, " You want common sense. 
If you had common sense you would have 
asked him, in the first instance, what he 
wanted you to do in his service, and not 
tumble things about in this way." 

Every one can understand that part. 
Now, dear boys, if we would be His servants 
we should find out what His will is : what it 
is that He wants us to do. How shall we 
know it ? 

Here are great facts in nature : men call 
thunder and lightning the voice of God. 
But a boy cannot find God's will from the 



LECTURE IV, 83 



thunder and the lightning. God has re- 
vealed His will in some other way which you 
can understand. It is contained in His 
Blessed Word. Go to that Book and ask 
what His will is, if you want to be His ser- 
vants. That tells us His will very plainly. 
For instance, the Ten Commandments tell us 
what He wants us to do ; and other portions 
of His will tell us how to honor Him. 
Find out this from His Book. Then, if you 
really mean to be His servants, set to work. 
I live in Fifty-sixth street. Immediately 
behind my house the masons have been 
building a very beautiful mansion at the 
corner of the street looking on Fifth avenue. 
They are putting up, in the grounds around 
it, neat little brick walls. When I am dress- 
ing in the morning I see how they go to 
work. Whenever they lay one row of bricks 
they take the plumb-line and stretch it so as 
to see if the bricks are perfectly straight, and 
every one in its place. Two things are 



84 LECTURE IV. 



needed : First of all is the eye ; a blind man 
could not do it ; in the next place, the plumb- 
line. This is the standard by which he judges 
if the bricks are straight. And so it is with 
us in our work. We have Reason, to use the 
builder's line. We have His Word, which 
is like the plumb-line which we should lay to 
all we do, and judge our actions by it, accord- 
ing to which, whether good or bad, we are to 
proceed in them or reform them. That is the 
reason we want you to study this Book. 
We want you to know what His will is. It is 
said in the Book of Psalms, " The law of the 
Lord is perfect." So, if you will know what 
your Master, who owns you, wishes you to 
do, you are to learn what He requires. 
There were two men of the same name, 
one in the Old Testament, the other in the 
New. Thinking of the lives of these two, 
you get a knowledge of those who ask and 
those who do not. One was Saul, the first 
King of the Hebrews, in the Old Testament, 



LECTURE IV. S5 



— a fine, handsome man. At first the people 
thought nothing could stand against him. 
By-and-by, God told him to go and smite the 
nation of the Amalekites, and put them to 
death. But he let his people spare the best 
of their possessions, and he spared the 
king, so as to have a magnificent triumph, 
and, like the Roman generals, to show the 
king as his captive. He did not ask what 
the Lord's will was, and did not do it. And 
the Lord put him aside and took the throne 
away from him. In the New Testament 
there is another man, who was called Saul 
of Tarsus. He was turned from his great 
hatred of the Christian cause and became a 
believer. He was made an apostle. Then 
he became Paul, and became great as a 
true, honest and earnest man ; and what he 
believed he ought to do, he did heartily. 
You may be sure of this, that if a man is 
honest and earnest for the Lord, though on 
the wrong road, if he wants to do God's 



86 LECTURE IV. 



will, God will show him that he is on the 
wrong line, and bring him into the right one. 
When the Saviour showed himself to Saul, 
and spoke to him, Saul instantly changed 
his mind regarding Him, and his question 
was, " Lord, what wilt Thou have me to 
do ? " So, looking straight to the Lord, we 
should say, " Lord, what wilt Thou have me 
to do ? Here I am, ready to go to work, to 
do anything." That is the first real element 
in the character of a true servant of God. 
Now I want to show you the second, 
and, to do that, I had better tell you some 
things in the life of a very remarkable man, 
I think one of the greatest men the world 
ever had in it. It was Moses. He was re- 
markable for meekness. That was his 
spirit. The world rather admires men like 
the great conqueror. Men admire a man who 
has great power, and goes through the 
world like a locomotive, and sweeps aside 
everything that stands in his way. Moses was 



LECTURE IV. 87 



the greatest in his meekness. He was 
brought up as the son of Pharaoah's daughter, 
and, until he was forty years of age, he was 
treated as a Prince of Egypt. But he always 
felt that he was a Jew ; and one day he went 
out into the field and saw an Egyptian strik- 
ing a Jew, and his blood was so warmed that 
he raised his hand and delivered his coun- 
tryman by killing the Egyptian. The next 
day, when he went out, he saw two Jews 
quarreling, and supposing that these men 
would know that he loved them, because he 
delivered the Hebrew the previous day, 
and would heed whatever he would say to 
them, he said to the man that was strik- 
ing the other, " Why do you your neighbor 
wrong ? " And the man, instead of sub- 
mitting to him and saying to himself, " This 
is Moses, who is our natural leader," turned 
upon him and said : " Who made you a 
ruler in this matter ? What right have you 
to speak to me about it ? Do you mean to 



LECTURE IV. 



kill me as you did the Egyptian yester- 
day ? " At that time Moses was forty years 
old, and, when he heard the man say he had 
killed the Egyptian, he saw that it was 
known, and he fled away, and for forty 
years he was living in the desert to be 
schooled into the knowledge of himself. 

Usually it is good for a man to go into 
the desert for awhile. It is a good thing 
for a boy to go to college, and into his 
lonely room there. Then he says : "I 
did not know the value of my home half as 
well as I do now." 

In the desert, Moses stayed forty years 
before the Lord came to him. You re- 
member that beautiful story about the bush 
burning with fire, but which was not con- 
sumed. The Lord spoke to him out of the 
bush, " Come now and deliver my people out 
of Egypt." Did he jump at the proposal ? No 
indeed. Why not? Forty years before he 
thought he was the very man to do it. Now 



LECTURE IV. 89 



he said, "I am a poor creature; I cannot 
speak well ; I have a stammering tongue ; I 
am not a fit man for the work ; some one 
else must do it." The Lord began to get 
angry with him and constrained him to do it. 
When he thought he was fit to do God's work, 
God thought he was not: and, when he thought 
he was not fit, God thought he was. The 
reason for this thing is that a man, in order to 
be fitted for God's service, is to be made 
meek — made to feel that he must depend 
upon another, and that grace must be given 
from above. When this is the case, I tell 
you, Young Gentlemen, you will not sup- 
pose that you can take care of yourselves. 
You will never feel yourselves to be so wise, 
so strong, so good, that you can do it. You 
need help from above, and, when you ask 
for it, then the help will come. That is the 
second point — to know that we have need 
of strength and that God is near us for our 
strength. 



90 LECTURE IV, 



The third thing that must be found in 
real service to Him is, that it be from 
the heart, and not from the hand or eye. 
We shall only be acceptable servants of the 
Lord when we work from the heart, because 
you see His eye is on your heart. It is an 
insult to appear to be doing things in His 
service when we are not doing them from 
the heart. There was Joshua, in the Old 
Testament ; the successor of Moses. What- 
ever he did, he did it with his whole heart. 
That is his greatness. He was not a very 
able man ; he was not a man of shining 
prominence, but a man who did his duty, and 
so was qualified to bear rule over the men of 
his time. Joshua said, " Let others do as 
they will, I will serve the Lord." That is 
the kind of service He requires — what goes 
from the heart. 

One other qualification for service, if the life 
is to be for God, must be named. It is called 
by various words in the Bible, sometimes 



LECTURE IV. 91 



looking unto the Lord, or " trusting to the 
Lord." You remember these words, " The 
Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of 
trouble, and He knoweth them that trust in 
Him." More frequently it is called ''Faith." 
" Have faith in God," " Trust Him." Now, 
He reveals Himself to us in that glorious 
Person to whom you were singing, " I need 
Thee every hour." If we are to be true fol- 
lowers of Him, it must be by trusting Him 
who gave His life that we might be saved, 
whom we call Him our Redeemer and our 
Lord. 

Sometimes persons seem to and talk and 
think about this trust, and represent it in 
such a way as to mislead and deceive. 
They represent it as something to be done, 
and completed, like signing one's name, 
whereas, according to the pictures given 
us in the best of books, it is some- 
thing that goes on from day to day and 
hour to hour. I do not trust the Lord on 



92 LECTURE IV. 



Monday, so as not to trust Him on Tuesday ; 
in January, so as not to trust Him the rest of 
the year ; on Sunday, so as not to trust Him 
during the week. If we have faith in our 
hearts in God, it will go on from day to 
day and hour to hour, in all our feelings 
and duties. 

Have you ever seen a young girl learn 
to fire a pistol ? I will not say imagine a 
boy, for he would naturally be brave about 
it. I have seen young ladies acquiring this 
accomplishment, and it is a very curious 
thing. It may illustrate to you the false 
notion that many persons have about 
faith. The pistol is loaded, and handed 
to the young lady. She takes hold of it very 
" gingerly," as if afraid it may shoot from 
the handle. Now, she means to go through 
with it, — there is the mark, so she takes the 
pistol in her hand, and holds it out a long 
way, and appears to take aim with the 
greatest exactness, but does not shoot. She 



LECTURE IV. 93 



is a little afraid, trembles, and holds back. 
At last she screws up her courage to the 
sticking-point, and, as you suppose, taking 
the most exact aim, shuts her eyes firmly 
and fires. The thing is done and done 
with. 

Well, now, many intelligent persons are 
led to believe that faith is something like 
that — something you end in an instant. You 
screw up your courage for it ; then shut 
your eyes, and just believe once for all, and, 
when you have believed once for all, then 
the thing is done, and you are saved. 
Now, that is a mistaken idea about faith 
itself. That real faith which is honest goes 
on from time to eternity. We are always 
believing God ; always trusting Him ; always 
looking for the teaching of His Holy Spirit. 
You can see how in such a case, if you 
have reason for believing and trusting God 
to-day, it is good for to-morrow, and so 
on through life. I believe, I always believe, 



94 LECTURE IV. 



a true man says ; and because I always 
believe, I always do trust Him ; and because 
I trust Him, I always obey; I always fear 
God, and because I fear, I respect His com- 
mandments ; I always have confidence, and 
because I have confidence, I seek to glorify 
His name. Always believing God, I always 
trust His Beloved Son, who gave his life 
that we might live eternally ; and always 
try to do what is right, because I have 
some constant affection, by faith in Him who 
gave His life that we might come out of 
the sorrows and perils of this uncertain life, 
and enjoy peace and glory in the life be- 
yond. 

Now, dear boys, most of you are young : 
some of you very young, and very many 
of these things that I have been saying to 
you, you do not now understand. But I 
wish you may carry them in your minds, 
and by and by you will carry them out in 
your lives. We are coming very near the 



LECTURE IV. 95 



end of another year. You are about to have 
a happy Christmas time, and I hope it will 
be very joyous to every one of you, and that 
you will have all the satisfaction you are 
promising yourselves. I hope you will re- 
member, in the joys and in the sorrows of 
your lives, in the duties and in the pleas- 
ures, that all the real solid happiness that 
we can have must come from serving God 
and trying to do His will. I have seen rich 
men that were very miserable. I have seen 
great men that were very unhappy. I have 
seen men of genius who made themselves 
and every-body about them wretched. I 
have seen poor, lowly, humble creatures, that 
had hardly anything but their hope in Christ 
yonder, and their fear of the Lord, that had 
a quiet, purifying peace — that which 
the Bible calls " The peace that passeth all 
understanding." It may be God's will to 
spare you to become men, and, if so, I hope 
you will be true, brave, good men ; it may 



g6 LECTURE IV. 



be God's will that you never shall grow up 
to be men ; it may be God's will that some 
of these little boys will some day grow sick, 
and mother will be anxious, and the doctor 
will be sent for, and you will be put to bed, 
and bitter medicines will have to be taken 
day after day, while the head is burning 
with fever, and the medicines do no 
good, and you grow worse, until, perhaps, 
the doctor says : " There is no hope for 
him, not the slightest ; " and all gather 
about in the room, and look at that face 
soon to be still in death. By-and-by, death 
will come, and the doctor will lay his hand 
upon the wrist, and say : "I cannot per- 
ceive any beating of the heart. Dissolu- 
tion has just taken place." When the last 
breath has been drawn, then the ques- 
tion will be, dear boys : Now that the body 
is dead, and the spirit takes its departure 
from it, whither does it go ? Into that 
other world, of course. But there are two 



LECTURE IV. 97 



sections in that other world. There is that 
place where the loving servants of God are, 
and there is that place where the rebels 
against God are. And the great question 
is : Into which place ? Among the good 
and holy, with the angels, and the Son, and 
the saints who serve the Lord, or, among 
the angels that were bad and unholy, and 
the men that rebelled against him ? 

Now, I want you to think about that at 
present. I want you to have faith in God 
now, and to have trust in Him to whom you 
have just been singing, now ; to get it and 
have it now; to go on from now, a constant 
now, a perpetual now, always trusting, 
always believing, always looking to Him, 
always grateful to him, always committing 
yourself to Him, always doing the thing 
that is right before Him, because you love 
Him, and are grateful to him for the bless- 
ings he gives you now. 

That is real, thorough religion : and that 



98 LECTURE IV. 



is real manliness. You know what a noble 
thing manliness is : well that, is the way to 
be manly. Begin by being godly, and the 
godly man k eminently a manly man, who 
will not lie, cheat, swindle, nor deceive, nor 
do a base, mean, or rough thing; that will 
not bully the weak ones, nor shirk his duty, 
nor impose upon others, nor wear two 
faces, one on this side and another on that 
side, but stand right up, because he fears 
God, and wants to do what is right in the 
sight of Him who says : The very thoughts 
of our hearts are open before Him. Oh, 
may you be such godly men. Then you 
will be a blessing in your homes, and a 
credit to this institution ; and most of all, 
your lives and your death will be to the 
glory, that is, to the credit of Him who has 
made us, and who has redeemed us by the 
blood of His Son. 



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